Translated material
Celestial price
China refused to buy expensive Russian electricity
The export of Russian electricity to China , as it became known yesterday, was stopped on February 1. This year, the structures of RAO UES of Russia were supposed to supply about 1.4 billion kWh to the Celestial Empire, but since February, energy workers say, the Federal Tariff Service has approved new tariffs in this direction, which are almost twice as high as the previous ones. As a result, the Chinese side refused to buy energy, and the supply operator, Inter RAO UES, is now awaiting sanctions, since it will not be able to fulfill the supply contract. At the same time, as is known, RAO is developing a large-scale program for exporting electricity to China, and a week ago it was approved by the board of directors of the energy holding. And although RAO claims that the current situation has nothing to do with this “megaproject,” experts believe that as long as China insists on a low price for imported electricity and continues to implement its large-scale energy capacity construction program, no one will need the RAO project.Until now, small amounts of electricity have been supplied to China from the Far Eastern border regions. In January of this year, as Viktor Myasnik, head of the Far Eastern Energy Company (DEK), told Interfax, 180 million kWh were supplied. “We have excess capacity,” he says, “but the price at which Chinese partners want to buy electricity although not significantly, it is still lower than what is formed today in the generation market in our DEK. To start trading, we need to deploy reserves, but is it worth doing this if we have to sell cheaper? Our consumer should not and will not subsidize? electricity consumption of the People's Republic of China." Neither Mr. Myasnik, nor RAO, nor Inter RAO UES spoke yesterday about the reasons that prompted the FTS to raise the tariff. However, it is obvious that the service was guided by the consideration that the export price cannot. be lower than the current one on the Russian market.
Nevertheless, RAO is increasingly trying to approve a program for the construction of large energy facilities in the Far East, the energy of which will be supplied to China. The RAO media relations department told Vremya Novostey that today’s problems with exports have nothing to do with this project, which is written down in the relevant intergovernmental agreement. At the first stage of this project - in 2008 - RAO intends to supply 3.6-4.5 billion kWh annually to China. For this purpose, it is planned to build a 500 kV power transmission line with a length of 145 km in the Heilongjiang province in northeast China. At the second stage - by 2012 - it is planned to increase supplies by 18 billion kWh, for this purpose two thermal power plants with a total capacity of 3.6 thousand MW will be built. At the third stage, electricity supplies to China should increase by another 38 billion kWh. For this purpose, it is planned to build several more coal-fired thermal power plants with a total capacity of 7.2 thousand MW. “In addition, the possibility of participating in the supply of electricity for the export of new hydroelectric power plants will be considered,” the program says. “The target volume of export supplies from Russia is 60 billion kWh per year.” RAO believes that this project will accelerate the development of the economy of Eastern Siberia and the Far East, while revenues to budgets thanks to the project will amount to about $1 billion annually. The Chinese project is believed to be lobbied only by Andrei Rappoport, a member of the board of RAO, the head of the Federal Grid Company and the chairman of the board of directors of Inter RAO UES.
Obviously, all calculations are based on the high price of electricity. However, due to the fact that there are no agreements on it yet, it is impossible to implement the entire project. So far, the board of directors of RAO has only approved “approaches to the implementation strategy” of this project and authorized the creation of the Eastern Energy Company (a 100 percent subsidiary of RAO), which will become the holder of an export contract, as well as contracts for the purchase of electricity on the domestic Russian market. In addition, it is assumed that this company will enter into agreements on network connection, network transmission and operational dispatch control.
However, China has recently demonstrated an accelerated pace of energy capacity construction. The world's largest hydroelectric power station, the Three Gorges Hydroelectric Station, is already being completed, consisting of 26 hydroelectric units, which will annually generate 85 billion kWh of energy (this is equivalent to burning about 50 million tons of coal per year). By 2011, it is planned to install six more power units and increase production to 100 billion kWh. In addition, as Interfax recently reported, construction of the second stage of the Jinping Hydroelectric Power Station in southwest China with a capacity of 4.8 thousand MW has begun. According to plans, by 2015 it will annually produce 24 billion kWh of electricity. It is also planned to build the Guandi hydroelectric power station with a capacity of 2.4 thousand MW and the Tongzilin hydroelectric power station with a capacity of 600 MW (a total of more than 40 billion kWh per year). At the same time, China is financing the construction of several power plants in Kazakhstan, the energy of which will be supplied, among other things, to the Middle Kingdom.
Electricity consumption in China this year is expected to increase by 11--12.5% compared to 2006 and amount to 3.13--3.18 trillion kWh, Interfax reports, citing an analytical report by the China State Grid Corporation (State Grid Corporation, SGC). At the same time, the installed capacity of Chinese energy will increase by approximately 95 thousand MW and reach 720 thousand MW. In the central and western regions of China there will be a surplus of electricity, and in the east and south of China, the demand and supply of electricity will be largely balanced.
The head of the Russian-Chinese Center for Trade and Economic Cooperation, Sergei Sanakoev, says that in the electric power industry, relations between the two countries should be built exclusively on a market basis. This means that demand must give rise to supply: “There is no demand yet,” he told Vremya Novostey. - That’s why they want electricity almost below cost. In order to build power plants and networks in Russia for supply to China, there must be great feasibility. There is none yet, so there is no point in exporting energy.”
In general, Mr. Sanakoev pointed out that Russian state policy is not yet aligned in favor of the RAO project: “Russian companies are building power plants in China (hydroelectric power plants and thermal power plants - Ed. ), moreover, we are building nuclear power plants for them, and we are still surprised “Why don’t they want to buy electricity from us at high prices!”